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Orlando Jordan
| birth_place = Richmond, Virginia | death_date = | death_place = | resides = | billed = | trainer = Corporal Punishment Rocky Johnson The Bruiser The Rock | debut = 1999 | retired = 2015 }} Orlando Jordan (April 21, 1974) is a retired American professional wrestler. Jordan is best known for his tenure in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), where he was a one-time United States Champion. Following his departure from WWE, he spent nineteen months signed with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). Career World Wrestling Entertainment (2003-2006) Jordan made his WWE TV debut on the May 31, 2003 episode of Velocity defeating Jamie Noble. On June 26, 2003, Jordan made his first SmackDown! appearance as a fan favorite at Madison Square Garden against then-villain John Cena. Although he did not win the match, he was impressive enough that when Cena attacked Jordan after the match was over, The Undertaker, with whom Cena was feuding, came to the ring and helped Jordan to his feet After being a fan favorite for several months, Jordan turned into a villain by joining John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL)'s Cabinet and being appointed as his "Chief of Staff". This happened when he saved J.B.L. from an attack from The Undertaker. A few months after joining, Jordan began changing his look by growing out his hair. While a part of The Cabinet, Jordan, along with the Basham Brothers (who became the newly appointed "Co-Secretaries of Defense"), helped JBL manage to keep his WWE Championship for nine months by interfering in his title matches against Eddie Guerrero, Booker T, the face run of The Big Show, and The Undertaker, who was the first person to show Jordan respect. After JBL began a feud with a now-fan favorite John Cena over the WWE Title leading up to WrestleMania 21, Jordan faced off with Cena on the March 3, 2005 edition of SmackDown! from the Times Union Center in Albany, New York. Orlando defeated John Cena with the help of JBL to win the United States Championship, his first and only title in WWE. After losing his WWE Title to John Cena at WrestleMania 21, JBL stated that his Cabinet had been holding him back, which led to the departure of the Bashams. At The Great American Bash, Jordan began feuding with the newly drafted Chris Benoit. Jordan defeated Benoit and retained his United States Championship after removing the turnbuckle pad and shoving Benoit head-first into the exposed steel and covered him for the win. Feeling cheated, Benoit continued to chase Jordan for the title. He finally defeated Jordan (in a record 25.5 seconds) at SummerSlam to win the title. Following this quick match, Jordan attempted to win his title back on multiple occasions, leading to 3 consecutive losses with all matches lasting less than a minute. The first rematch lasted 23.4 seconds. During the second rematch, Jordan actually almost knocked out Benoit with a punch in the opening moments but still lost at 22.5 seconds, which was even faster than the first match. During the third match, Jordan stalled until the time, which was being displayed on the TitanTron, went over 25 seconds. He got so excited when his time went over 30 seconds that he dropped his guard and Benoit took the opportunity to lock on the Sharpshooter for a win at the 49.8 second mark. Earlier in the show, Orlando stated that he had mastered every counter to Benoit's signature Crippler Crossface, which was shown when during the match every time Benoit attempted the Crippler Crossface, Jordan countered it. After those unsuccessful rematches, Jordan later broke away from JBL, although both later made a few appearances together later on. When Booker T got injured halfway through his Best of Seven series for the United States Championship, he needed a replacement to face Chris Benoit. As the series was at 3–1 in Booker's favor, Booker T only needed his replacement to win one match in order to become the United States Champion. Orlando approached him about the position but Booker T and his wife Sharmell laughed in Orlando's face and made jokes about Orlando's quick tap-out losses to Benoit. Booker instead asked Randy Orton to substitute for him. Orton, however, failed to win the deciding match, leading Jordan to once again ask for the position the next week. Booker T and his wife laughed at him and turned him down once again, however. During the sixth match in the series, Jordan jumped the rail, grabbed Booker T's crutch, and hit Chris Benoit for a disqualification finish. Chris Benoit was announced as the winner, tying the Best of Seven Series at 3–3. The next week, Jordan ran to ringside to attempt to halt Booker T from winning the Championship but was unable to prevent Orton from eventually beating Chris Benoit and winning the series for Booker T. Jordan was then pushed down to Velocity and won several matches there. Jordan made his final SmackDown! appearance on the May 12 episode of SmackDown! in a backstage segment, telling Nunzio that he had seen someone who looked like his partner Vito dressed in drag at a night club during the recent UK tour. His final WWE appearance was a loss to Gunner Scott on the May 13 episode of Velocity. Independent circuit (2006-2010) Jordan began competing on the independent circuit soon after his WWE departure along with wrestling overseas, most notably for Nu-Wrestling Evolution, a promotion based in Italy, as well as New Japan Pro Wrestling. Jordan became NWE Champion in April 2008. Later in that month, he was involved in a storyline confrontation with the Ultimate Warrior, leading to the return of Warrior after a ten-year absence to face Jordan in a match in June 2008. Jordan lost the title to Warrior on August 21, 2008 In Barcelona. TNA Wrestling (2010-2011) On the January 4, 2010, live, three-hour, Monday night edition of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling's Impact! television show Jordan made his debut for the company in a backstage segment with D'Angelo Dinero. He then as a heel, defeated Dinero in a singles match on the January 21 episode of Impact!. After scoring an upset victory over Samoa Joe on the February 18 edition of Impact!, Jordan disappeared from TV, before re-surfacing on the March 29 edition of Impact!, debuting a new look and starting the bisexual angle he had proposed to WWE creative before his release from that company. On April 9 Jordan announced that he had signed a new multi-year contract with TNA. On the May 3 edition of Impact!, Jordan debuted his new interview segment, O-Zone, during which he attacked and started a feud with the Global Champion Rob Terry. At Sacrifice Jordan challenged Terry for the Global Championship, but was unsuccessful. The following Thursday on Impact!, Jordan scored a non-title victory over Terry, after capitalizing on Terry's injured knee, which he had injured at Sacrifice. Jordan's feud with Terry came to an end on the June 3 edition of Impact!, when the Global Champion pinned him in a tag team match, where he teamed with Desmond Wolfe and Terry with Abyss. On the July 29 edition of Impact! Jordan, himself formed a dysfunctional tag team with babyface Eric Young, who had been battling (kayfabe) mental problems ever since taking a bump on the head, being completely unaware of Jordan's sexual orientation and interest in him. At Bound for Glory Young's antics cost him and Jordan their match against Ink Inc. (Jesse Neal and Shannon Moore). Upon the team's next appearance on Impact! on December 16, Jordan had turned face as he and Young defeated Generation Me (Jeremy and Max Buck) in a tag team match. On April 17, 2011, at Lockdown, Jordan and Young were unsuccessful in becoming the number one contenders to the TNA World Tag Team Championship in a four tag team steel cage match, which was won by Ink Inc.30 After this point, Eric Young went on a singles run and won the TNA Television Championship, the title formerly known as the Global Championship, while Jordan was taken off television. On July 11, 2011, it was reported that Jordan had been released from TNA Other media Shortly after his WWE departure, Jordan participated in the wrestling documentary Bloodstained Memoirs. Personal life Before becoming a professional wrestler, Jordan was a member of the United States Forest Service. He then relocated to Florida where he became a reputable amateur boxer. Jordan competed in gymnastics as a child, and participated in amateur wrestling. He attended Boise State University after winning the 1993 state championship at 189 pounds for Hermitage High School in Richmond, Virginia. As of June 2011, Jordan is the co-owner, along with independent wrestler Luke Hawx, of WildKat Sports & Entertainment, a professional wrestling training center located just outside of New Orleans, LA. Their school has since spawned a Louisiana state-exclusive wrestling federation, WILDKAT Pro, which was briefly a member territory of the National Wrestling Alliance. On August 20, 2012, Jordan opened another wrestling school in Melbourne, Australia. In wrestling *'Finishing moves' **Running powerslam – 2003 **''Orlando Magic'' (Swinging neckbreaker) – 2003; used as a signature move from 2004–present **''Black Ice'' (Double knee backbreaker, sometimes from the top rope – 2006–present or a shoulder jawbreaker – 2004–2005) **Leg drop bulldog – 2006 **Guillotine choke – 2010 **''Gender Bender'' (Rolling cutter) – 2011 **''Blackout'' (Reverse STO) *'Signature moves' **Arm drag **Dragon screw **Dropkick **Elbow drop, sometimes from the top rope **''Johnson Shuffle'' (Three left-handed jabs followed by a right-handed punch) – adopted from Rocky Johnson **Knee drop, with theatrics **Swinging side slam backbreaker – 2010 *'Tag teams and stables' **BLACK **The Cabinet *'Managers' **Regina (NWE) (2008) **Amy Weber **Santana G *'Nicknames' **"Chief Of Staff" **"Wild Card" **"Bisexual" *'Entrance themes' **"Do It Big V2" by Silkk The Shocker (WWE) **"Simply the Greatest" by Dale Oliver (TNA) Championships and accomplishments *'Maryland Championship Wrestling' **MCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) *'Nu-Wrestling Evolution' **NWE World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) *'World Wrestling Entertainment' **WWE United States Championship (1 time) See also *Orlando Jordan's event history External links *Orlando Jordan profile at CAGEMATCH.net Category:American wrestlers Category:European Wrestling Promotion alumni Category:Freestyle Championship Wrestling alumni Category:German Wrestling Promotion alumni Category:I Believe In Wrestling alumni Category:Inoki Genome Federation alumni Category:International Championship Wrestling alumni Category:Maryland Championship Wrestling alumni Category:New Japan Pro Wrestling alumni Category:Nu-Wrestling Evolution alumni Category:Ohio Valley Wrestling alumni Category:Total Nonstop Action Wrestling alumni Category:Vendetta Pro Wrestling alumni Category:World Wrestling Council alumni Category:World Wrestling Entertainment alumni Category:Wrestling Alliance Revolution alumni Category:Wrestling Fan Xperience alumni Category:1974 births Category:1999 debuts Category:MCW Heavyweight champions Category:WWE United States Champions Category:Former boxers Category:Virginia wrestlers Category:All Action Wrestling (Australia) alumni Category:WildKat Pro Wrestling alumni Category:Hulkamania alumni Category:Living people Category:Male wrestlers Category:2015 retirements Category:National Wrestling Alliance alumni Category:Outback Championship Wrestling alumni Category:Pro Wrestling Holland alumni Category:Pro Wrestling Showdown alumni Category:Warzone Wrestling alumni